The Shepherd and the Star - Part XV
He breathed heavily as he shook against a corner and tightly gripped the handle of his gun. There were deep cuts and grazes in the plates of his combat armour as his vulnerable body shivered with panic beneath. His facial features were barely visible through the clouded visor of his helmet as he quietly grumbled a series of analogous phrases through the attached radio. *‘G-General, this is the only survivor of alpha team. General? General? Please respond, I’m alone now, General?’ he whimpered ‘General, if they haven’t got to you already then you need to know. There’s something here with us, and its killing us. The ship, it’s in the ship. You need to escape...!’ He silenced and spun his head as something scraped metal around the corner. He pushed against the wall, slid to the edge and peeked around the curve. The ringed handle of the hooked hatch at the end of the passage was turning, and he leapt from his place of hiding with his aim set but unsteady towards the door. The handle finally clicked as his finger hovered over the trigger, before it slid open. The girl stepped through casually and then froze when he ordered her to. Suddenly they mirrored each other’s fear. *‘Hands up!’ he commanded lividly, and watched her anxiously follow the instruction ‘Quicker!’ She gulped loudly and shot both hands up, where they shook in the sourness of the air. He then approached with his weapon directed at her brow, and stopped only metres before her. *‘Who are you?’ he ordered and watched her limbs jump at the first word ‘What are you doing here?’ She understood him, but she couldn’t mimic him. She didn’t know how to speak, so she closed her eyes when he yelled again and tried to think of a different type of response. None came. He pinched her shoulder and flung her down the passage where she almost slammed into the wall. He was desperate. He needed to escape. He pulled her up as she whined and pressed his gun to the back of her head. She didn’t appear to struggle much. *‘Changed your mind yet?’ he tormented her ‘Who are you?’ There was no comprehensible answer, merely a string of quiet moans and sobs. *‘I won’t ask again,’ he said and released her from his grip, but kept the rim of the gun pressed against her head ‘Who sent you? Are you from the Agency or the UA? What are you doing here? Or maybe it’s obvious. You’re here to take us out? Where are your weapons, agent?’ Then he realised. *‘...But agents don’t cry,’ he said, circled her and kneeled down before her as she focused on the floor ‘besides you’re too young to be out on the field. What’s with this hobo rag? And all of those tears, eh? You’re not an agent, and the UA doesn’t know this thing is here...Or do they? One thing’s for sure, you’re definitely human. Maybe it’s like they used to say in the old days, maybe the aliens of this ship visited Earth...took hostages...Yeah, you look like you’ve just escaped a twisted alien lab, alright. You look messed, kid.’ She frowned, widened her stare and fired it adamantly at him as the tears continued to slither. *‘Oh? Did I hit a nerve?’ he intimidated her some more and watched her eyelids squeeze together when he clasped his fingers around her neck and lowered his gun to her cheek ‘Alright, let’s get down to it then. I don’t know if you can understand me, but you’ll listen good if you want to be around when the revolution kicks in. The plan was to turn this ship around and tow it to Earth, then threaten the UA and make them surrender, and then free the whole world and her colonies from the clutch of the Agency. But something’s here, on this ship on every deck, watching all of us. My team got here first; we were tracking team 2 and ended up on this floor. We crept into some room, just a few hallways back that way, and something activated! Before we knew what the hell was happening, the walls split open and we were attacked. All kinds of stuff, spikes, gas, small explosives – Someone was looking out for me, I was already half-way to the next hatch by the time the trap noticed we were there. I locked them all in, didn’t want to catch the ailments I knew they had just caught, and then I waited until the screams died. I had to leave them behind, and there’s too much interference from all of that crap that this thing is dragging down with it. All of those rocks and gases outside? Can’t even contact my General! So tell me, is it still worth trying to steer this thing around? She promised us that we’d all be heroes when we returned to Earth, but if you ask me – we’re not going back to Earth. None of us are. The damn ship won’t let us!’ He pushed her down to the floor again. *‘I fought with those men for the UA. I fought with them in the riots of Solace, through the battles of what was once Tanzania, in the centre of the Mist of the Red Sun. I survived all of that – I will survive this!’ he declared and prepared to fire. She closed her eyes, discharged a short scream and heard a loud gunshot. His body hit the ground with a loud thud, and she peeked through her fingers and to two tall shadows across the hallway, beside the corner. One of them held a smoking pistol. *‘No, you won’t.’ The Captain responded a little late to the soldier’s outburst and heard the Commander heave a sigh. The girl hurled herself around and ran back through the hatch. *‘Oh, nice.’ The Captain uttered. *‘Hey!’ the Commander yelled and dived into a run. The girl was fast and navigated back through the empty hallways before the Commander caught up and jumped at her, but missed and hit into a stack of crates. As fate would have it, the crates lost their balance and collapsed down onto the poor girl as she stopped in a moment of mere hesitation. She was knocked unconscious in only a few seconds and just as the Captain re-emerged, panting. *‘That’s...You couldn’t do it any other way?’ he caught his breath, and watched as she dug the girl out from beneath the boxes. *‘Look at her. Look how young she is. What’s she doing right out here?’ she said and softly stroked the small cut on the girl’s temple ‘that soldier was going to kill her.’ *‘Maybe some traders got lost on the edge of the solar system, boarded the ship because they ran out of gas or something,’ the Captain shrugged and helped shift the crates. *‘That’s a bit of a guess, Captain’ she rejected the idea ‘no, she’s alone.’ *‘How do you know that?’ he pushed her. *‘...Because it feels right? I don’t know, I just get the idea that she’s not with anyone.’ She added ‘she doesn’t look like she’s part of a team. I don’t think she’s with the General, I mean that guy back there proved that.’ *‘So who is she?’ he asked ‘And what’s she doing here?’ --- The girl sat and gaped up at the violet sky as the dawn clouds parted and allowed the sunlight to drift down and embrace the grey grass of the quiet meadow as a pair of small winged creatures fluttered together distantly above. Their supple morning cries sent soft echoes which pattered right across the silver landscape and only added to the magnificent resonance of life that caressed her eardrums. She smiled brightly and felt at home. Everything was so right here. Everything was so perfect. Suddenly she was walking between rows of red trees and blue shrubs; each tossed to her a gentle and welcoming wave as she passed. She felt her naked feet come to a swift halt by the edge of the golden path as her gaze reached over the next hill, and she saw the great dazzling temple shimmering in the daybreak as it sat by a little glittery lake. It stood, almost church-like, with large pointed steeples which pierced up high, and with a familiar emblem engraved neatly just above the entrance. The same symbol she had seen before, when she was conscious in a dark and twisted place. It was the seal of Rassilon, and for one split moment in time she remembered everything, a moment followed by a final blissful tear. She was then within the temple, sauntering past lines of worshippers dressed in the whitest robes as they kneeled before her with grace. The hallways were arched, but not in the same fashion of the ship. These walls were new and bright and glowed with powers she didn’t try to comprehend as the doors to the sanctuary opened for her, and she stepped through. Lines and lines of empty seats faced the small monument that stood at the front, above a white and gold pedestal. A glorious pointed window, carved in the pattern of the Rassilon seal, channelled the dawn through and stretched a blanket of light out across the benches as she smiled up at her reflection through the sword held in the hands of the monument; a statue of a man in armour. The sword of the Chosen, the voice in her head reminded her, please say that you remember than much...The Chosen? The Time Lords? Gallifrey? Hey, are you even there? She didn’t reply, and the entire vision faded into darkness. No answer? I guess then, we’ll have to choose another...''There was an array of disturbed voices which debated with each other...''We’ll have to choose again. The plan failed. Eve is dead. in Part XVI